Janion Hotel Update

The Janion Hotel pictured here was one of old town Victoria's most derelict buildings until recent renovations. Below is what it looked like a few years ago. Above you can see that while adhering to the original style they have made some additions and improvements. The work is not finished yet but I am quite happy with the makeover of this heritage building.

The Janion Hotel

For many years the derelict Janion Hotel stood boarded up and empty at the eastern end of the Johnson Street Bridge. It looked haunted enough so that I even used the photo below as a scary Hallowe'en picture for this blog. However, in the last year or so work has commenced to turn this heritage building into a smart bunch of micro-flats (above). I'm happy to see this old building re-purposed in this way but I hope the final product will look a little more integrated. Below is the Janion Hotel from the front 5 or 6 years ago.

The Victoria Conservatory of Music

Here's a building I've not featured before on this blog although it is one of the more interesting heritage buildings in downtown Victoria. It's on the corner of Pandora and Quadra Streets. When it was built in 1890 it was consecrated as the Metropolitan Methodist Church. Now it houses the Victoria Conservatory of Music. Because the original church members had a strong music program the building was designed by Thomas Hooper with particular attention to acoustics. The Alix Goolden Performance Hall is used by the conservatory but also hosts many community events. The Victoria Heritage Foundation website has a good description of this building you can read by clicking HERE.

Heritage Brick

Here's another of Vic West's beautiful Heritage homes, built in 1890. The cost of construction was reported in 1891 as $2,400. Times have changed! Most of Victoria's older homes are wood construction - hardly surprising since this province has always had plenty of timber.

Lower Pandora Do-over

As work on the new Johnson Street Bridge moves ahead other changes are being made to some of the derelict buildings and vacant lots in that area. The above incorporation of an old building's front into a new building is on lower Pandora Street adjacent to Swan's Hotel. Below you can see what it looked like before the above restoration. It looks like they are planning to mimic the old building's front (on the right, above) with a similar facing on the left.

Fisgard Street also has a new building. When it is complete I will post a photo. The Janion Hotel is also undergoing complete refurbishment so by next spring Chinatown should be looking quite different with three old eyesores transformed into new residences and business places.

Capital Iron

I'm sure every city has a store like Capital Iron. It's the store you go to when you can't find what you want in any of your ordinary stores. It's probably closest to being a hardware store but also stocks all sorts of camping equipment, marine supplies, small appliances, plants and garden statuary and, and, and, etc. The building itself has an interesting history. It was built in 1863 from a design by the same architect (H.O. Tiedemann) who designed Victoria's original Legislative Assembly Buildings, known as "The Birdcages". It was built to serve as a flour mill and then became a scrap iron business in 1934. Since then it has evolved into what it is today. It's located at 1900 Store Street, directly above the Upper Harbour.

Wellburn's

Here is a photo of Victoria's heritage supermarket, Wellburn's. It is situated on the edge of downtown on the corner of Cook and Pandora Streets. The building itself is interesting with quite a lot of ornate moldings and cornices but for me there is equal interest in the narrow slice of North American marketing history this store represents. This is neither a corner store nor a modern supermarket but seems to be a transitional stage in the evolution of the modern supermarket. For me this comes from the era when Department Stores had come to the forefront of marketing, before they lost out to the suburban shopping malls. Department stores didn't have much to do with food and stores like Wellburn's were an attempt to use the same everything under one roof technique to sell grocery items. I'm sure the history of marketing is much more complex than my ideas of it, but passing by Wellburn's always makes me think of how things change and how we got where we are. Wikipedia has interesting articles on both supermarkets and department stores and their development.

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I hope any local history buffs out there will tell us more about Wellburn's. I know it's been around for a long time in that building but I don't know much more than that.

Board of Trade Building 1892

The heart of old town Victoria is Bastion Square and I've been neglecting it a bit despite its many interesting and historic buildings. I hope to remedy this over the next few weeks. Here the Board of Trade Building catches the light of the setting sun.

Pinks

A return today to cool, gray weather and while I was on a short trip downtown I stopped to enjoy these three shades of pink. The building is the old Custom House (1875) on Wharf Street just above Ship Point. It's also visible at the top of the page on the right side of the header photo. The parking lot serves the seaplane terminals off-camera to the left.

Old Buildings

I've posted a few pictures of restored heritage buildings in downtown Victoria and they are quite numerous. However, there are others like this one that have been derelict for years. I suspect the reasons are economic and as such are not likely to change in the near future. One can only hope that such buildings will last until they can be brought back to life profitably. Those pictured here are on Pandora Street on the opposite side of the street from Market Square.

Come in, come in...we've been waiting for you....

Heh, heh, heh....

Chinatown Backside

Autumn's russet and rusty brown comes to buildings as well as to trees. And it also serves to remind me that old buildings can have a certain charm in their dilapidation that they may lose when they are "restored." Heritage is fine but the obsession with having old buildings look as if they were new is a little weird. It's akin to face-lifts, botox and cellulite suction pumps. Anyway, I particularly like the precarious porches and the red flowers on this "senior" in Victoria's Chinatown.

Paper Box Building

In yesterday's post about Michael Williams I mentioned that he had received awards for his restorations of downtown heritage buildings. Here is an arcade in the Paper Box Building that he restored in 1988. this is one of two joined arcades that link on the ground floor of the building. Below left is an interior passageway between the two arcades. On the right is the Johnson Street entrance to the second and main arcade.

Below is the exterior of the Paper Box Building.
One of my favorite City Daily Photo Blogs today celebrates its six month anniversary. If you haven't yet visited there, I recommend you check out Willits Daily Photo. Congratulations Elaine!

Custom House

Wharf Street runs from the Inner Harbour along an inlet known as The Gorge. The Customs House pictured above is on Wharf Street and the plaque below will tell you all about it.